Freshly harvested dill is an extremely tasty addition to many salad dressings, side dishes, fish and meat recipes during the summer season. With a little patience and effort, dill can also be dried for year-round use, especially during the winter months.

Proper preparation for harvesting and drying

The day before harvest, you should water the dill extensively. Outside of the midday heat, pour the water over the filigree parts of the plant to wash off dust and insects. By saving the later washing of the harvested plant parts, you preserve more of the actual herbal aroma inside the plants. Herbs harvested during the daylight hours and after a day or two of sunshine usually taste more intense than spices and medicinal herbs cut at night or on rainy days. If you want to harvest and dry the dill tips, you should do this before the dill blooms in summer. As with many other herbs, the aroma in the leaves of dill is more pronounced before flowering than afterwards. However, you also automatically forego the formation of the dill seeds, which can also be dried and preserved for use as a spice.

Air dry dill

For best flavor, let the dill air dry slowly. To do this, cut off the individual dill sprouts with a clean kitchen knife and bundle them into small bundles of herbs. If you really want to wash them, you can gently pat the bouquets dry with paper towels before drying. Hang bunches of herbs in a well-ventilated place with a rain cover and wait about two weeks. By then the dill should be dry enough to crumble easily between your fingers. At this point, you can chop the dill bouquets and place in airtight jars for storage.

Dry the dill in the oven or in the dehydrator

You can dry dill faster than air drying if you use a commercial dehydrator. When drying in the oven, you should pay attention to the following things:

  • the maximum temperature may be around 43 degrees Celsius
  • the individual dill stalks should be spread out in a single layer for good ventilation
  • the door must be held ajar with the handle of a wooden spoon to allow moisture to escape

tips and tricks

If you're in a hurry, you can also microwave dill between absorbent paper on low power. However, dill dried in this way only lasts about 2 weeks, while conventionally dried dill can be used for more than a year if stored properly.

WK

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